Altona’s Shavita Kotak, like everyone else, found her world changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She speaks with Goya Dmytryshchak.
What’s your connection to Hobsons Bay?
I’ve been here since 2003 and had my family here.
What do you like about Altona?
I love the feeling of community here. Obviously, I like the beach and the lake and the country lifestyle feeling but being only 20 minutes, half an hour from the city. I feel like I’ve travelled the whole world from England to move to Australia to find Altona.
What would you change or what could be improved?
I really love Altona. I love the community. I love the cafes. The thing that I would probably think can be improved: in the hot summer days when there’s lots of people around, there’s a lot of rubbish around and sometimes I see broken things. I would love it if people, when they come and visit Altona, if they just respect it as their own home because that’s how I feel about Altona.
What’s your favourite local cafe or restaurant?
I’ve got a few. This is what we do every Friday: we got to Pier 71 for pizza for my daughters, then we stop Stella Pizza for pizzas for us and then we stop at Creme for dessert. We love them all and we try to support them all. And then, when I’m having lunch, myself, I go to Hangar 1One2.
You’re featured as The Yogi in a book, Together Apart: Life in Lockdown by Altona photographer Jude van Daalen and journalist Belinda Jackson. Can you tell me about your yoga, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns?
I used to teach yoga at the local library … and then when lockdown hit, obviously everything shut down. I had no idea how to do online – I’m not a real tech-savvy person – but I took my business online and I offered free classes for the first four months. I just thought, I need to do something for the community because if I was struggling mentally and finding the whole thing very, very challenging because it’s a new world, I thought everybody else around us will be challenged as well – my students. So, I offered it for free on Facebook and that’s how my business evolved to being an online business now.
Is there a positive message you can give to people?
I think life is so short and fragile and we’re only here temporarily. We should just try to embrace every day and if everybody you love has woken up, you’ve got a roof over your head and you’ve got food to eat, it’s a good day.
A selection of photos and interviews from Together Apart: Life in Lockdown will be displayed at Williamstown library until August 17 and the Hobsons Bay Civic Centre from August 2-30.
